The Dufour-Lapointe sisters: Chloe, left, Maxime and Justine pose in Olympic Park during the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics. All three will be in Calgary for Friday’s parade as part of the Canadian Olympic Committee’s Celebration of Excellence.

Canadian hearts collectively broke for Maxime Dufour-Lapointe during the Sochi Olympics.

First off, Maxime finished in the top-12 of the women’s moguls competition, only to watch her two younger sisters Justine and Chloe win gold and silver. All alone before the medal ceremony, former Canadian Olympian Jean-Luc Brassard spotted the eldest sibling crying and whisked her through security to her waiting parents.

Her mom and dad, Johane Dufour and Yves Lapointe, kissed her all over and tearfully told her how proud they were.

Then, the following day, a thoughtless photographer split up a family shot at the victory news conference, bellowing, “Just the two winners! Just the two winners!” Maxime slinked off to the side, breaking Canadian hearts once again.

It was her 25th birthday.

Nearly four months later, Maxime is happy to report that photographer proved the exception to the rule. In fact, Canadians have collectively loved her just as much as Justine and Chloe in the aftermath of the Sochi Games.

“People have been so great to me,” she says via telephone from the family home in Montreal. “I’ve been treated like a champion, just like my sisters. There’s absolutely no difference in other peoples’ minds, and I’m very grateful for that respect that I get.

“Not to say I’m surprised, but yes, I’m a little bit surprised. I appreciate it. I was expecting to be more left out, because that’s the way it is.”

That’s the way she expected it to be, but real-life experience has proven her wrong. Take their recent brush with show business. The three sisters — all three of them — are featured in the Quebec French-language version of Disney’s “Planes: Fire & Rescue” set to open in 3-D on July 19. Justine voices a bulldozer character called Pinecone while Maxime plays a dispatcher and Chloe assumes role of a bar maiden.

Upon returning home to Canada, the three sisters — all three of them — took part in an extensive media tour through Toronto, Vancouver, and Quebec. According to Justine, she is rarely recognized in public unless she is accompanied by Chloe and Maxime — a trend she expects to continue during this week’s three-day Celebration of Excellence, an opportunity for Canadians to show their appreciation for the stars of the Sochi Olympic and Paralympic Games.

In other words, the sisters are a package deal regardless of who won medal in Sochi.

“I don’t worry at all about Maxime,” says Justine, 20. “She’s a grown up girl and you know what? We’re sisters since forever. I’ll always be proud of her whatever happens. People are worried, but in our family, we’re not worried. You know she did an incredible job to go to the Olympic Games. She managed pressure during really intense competition, and she did what she had to. She’s got to be proud of herself about how she got there. It’s always about the path you take, not what happens at the end.

“You can ask her yourself, but she’s not destroyed or whatever is people think. We are always together.”

After the Vancouver Olympics, Maxime and Justine cheered for Chloe during the victory parade held in Montreal. This time around, all three will take part in Friday’s parade through downtown Calgary.

“I just remember Chloe on the cart and thinking to myself, ‘oh my God, I‘m missing out. I want to be there,’ ” Maxime says. “So this time, being there as an Olympian, it’s part of the adventure, and I’m really looking forward to it.”

Maxime is also looking forward to writing a Hollywood ending to her Olympic story. Two weeks after Sochi, she won bronze at a World Cup event in Japan (Justine once again seized gold). Maxime followed that up with another bronze medal in dual moguls at the season finale in La Plagne, France.

Sochi provided perhaps the one thing previously lacking in her repertoire, self-belief.

“The Olympics was where everybody starting noticed me, and I carried on,” she says. “This is just the tip of the iceberg. You’re not done seeing me around.

“For me, my journey to get to the Olympics was so rewarding. Being at the Olympics was a gold medal for me. I’ve proven myself wrong so many times along the way. I’ve grown so much. To me, I did win. And for me to have my sisters doing better was only an incentive to think, ‘well, next time, it’s going to be me.’ ”

Next time is the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea, and the Dufour-Lapointe sisters are already dreaming of a gold-silver-bronze performance on Canada’s behalf.

“Like I said, Sochi was definitely the tip of the iceberg,” Maxime says. “I’m fit. I’m motivated. I love what I do.

“I’m in a great position, and I don’t see any reason why I would like to stop now.”

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